The present invention relates to a softener composition.
Heretofore, quaternary ammonium salts having long-chain alkyl group, acid salts of tertiary amines, etc. have been used for softeners. Further, compounding of a softener composition with an antimicrobial agent has been attempted for sanitation and deodorization of fiber products. JP-A 10-512015 discloses a softener composition comprising a water-insoluble quaternary ammonium salt as a softener and a water-soluble quaternary ammonium salt as an antimicrobial agent compounded therein. In addition, JP-A 7-3649 discloses a fiber product-softener composition, having pH 2 to 5, comprising a di-long-chain-alkyl amine (C6-24 alkyl or alkenyl group which may be interrupted by an ether linkage, ester linkage or acid amide linkage) and a mono-long-chain-alkyl quaternary ammonium salt (C6-24 alkyl or alkenyl group which may be interrupted by an ether linkage, ester linkage or acid amide linkage), at a weight ratio of from 9:1 to 5:5. WO 98/56886 discloses an antimicrobial fiber softener composition, being suitable for conferring antimicrobial performance on fibers, comprising a conventional fiber softener composition and one or more cationic antimicrobial agents in a larger amount than required for antimicrobial performance. It, however, is a problem that the antimicrobial water-soluble quaternary ammonium salt lowers the softening effect. The softening effect is necessarily sacrificed in order to attain a satisfactory antimicrobial effect. In particular, it is difficult to achieve a composition demonstrating both a high softening effect and antimicrobial performance being capable of suppressing for long nasty smell attributable to microorganisms when clothes are dried in a room and body smell derived from sweat at the time of wearing.
Accordingly, the purpose of the present invention is to provide a softener composition which suppresses for long body smell derived from sweat etc. and is excellent in the softening effect.
The present invention relates to a softener composition comprising:
(a) a quaternary ammonium compound represented by the formula 
xe2x80x83wherein R1 and R2 independently represent a C12-22 alkyl or alkenyl group, X and Y are independently xe2x80x94COOxe2x80x94, xe2x80x94CONR7xe2x80x94, xe2x80x94OCOxe2x80x94 or xe2x80x94NR7COxe2x80x94, preferably provided that at least one of X and Y is xe2x80x94COOxe2x80x94 or xe2x80x94OCOxe2x80x94. R7 represents a hydrogen atom or a C1-3 alkyl or hydroxyalkyl group. R3 and R4 independently represent a C1-5 alkylene group, R5 and R6 represent a C1-3 alkyl or hydroxyalkyl group or R1xe2x80x94Xxe2x80x94R3xe2x80x94, and Zxe2x88x92 is an anionic group,
(b) a quaternary ammonium compound represented by formula (2): 
xe2x80x83wherein R8 represents a C12-22 alkyl or alkenyl group, W is a group selected from xe2x80x94COOxe2x80x94, xe2x80x94CONR7xe2x80x94, xe2x80x94OCOxe2x80x94 and xe2x80x94NR7COxe2x80x94, R7 represents a hydrogen atom or a C1-3 alkyl or hydroxyalkyl group, preferably a hydrogen atom, R9 represents a C1-5 alkylene group, R10 and R11 represent a C1-3 alkyl or hydroxyalkyl group, R12 represents a C1-3 alkyl group or xe2x80x94R26xe2x80x94OH, R26 is a C1-5 alkylene group and Zxe2x88x92 is an anionic group, and
a compound selected from the following component (c) or (d):
(c) 0.1 to 15% by weight of a compound represented by formula (3) and/or formula (4): 
xe2x80x83wherein R13 and R18 independently represent a C5-19 alkyl or alkenyl group, R14 and R15 independently represent a C1-3 alkyl or hydroxyalkyl group, and T is xe2x80x94COOxe2x80x94, xe2x80x94OCOxe2x80x94, xe2x80x94CONHxe2x80x94, xe2x80x94NHCOxe2x80x94, 
xe2x80x83or a linkage; R16 represents a C1-3 alkylene group, R17 represents a C1-6 alkylene group or xe2x80x94(Oxe2x80x94R19)n, R19 is ethylene group or propylene group and n is a number of 1 to 10 and Wxe2x88x92 is an anionic group, and
(d) 0.01 to 15% by weight, preferably 0.1 to 15% by weight of a compound represented by formula (5): 
xe2x80x83wherein 2 or 3 groups of R20, R21, R22 and R2 3represent a C8-12 alkyl group while the remainder(s) represents a C1-3 alky group, C1-3 hydroxyalkyl group or C7-15 arylalkyl group, and Zxe2x88x92 is an anionic group.
As used herein, the xe2x80x9clinkagexe2x80x9d refers to a covalent bond directly linking R13 with R17.